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Cardiff Unit for Research and Evaluation in Medical and Dental Education

Harmonization and standardization of European dental schools' programs of continuing professional development for graduate dentists

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is essential to the maintenance of dentists' knowledge and skills, underpinning safe clinical practice.

However, there is no harmonisation on the 'essential' content or regulation of CPD for graduate dentists in the EU. CPD is provided by a variety of enterprises, including dental schools in higher education institutions (HEIs), as well as public sector organisations and industry.  Not all are subject to quality management.

Aims and outcomes

This project aimed to identify agreed essential CPD requirements of an EU graduate dentist and provide guidelines for the management and delivery of high quality CPD by European dental schools. The specific objectives were to:

  1. produce an inventory of existing CPD programs and providers, agreeing essential components and identifying areas of best practice;
  2. develop guidelines for dental schools on organization and quality management of CPD programs, including methodology, innovative delivery modes and desired learning outcomes;
  3. provide guidelines for dental schools to deliver competence-based CPD, employing modern technological advances in pedagogy and develop an exemplar teaching  module on a core CPD topic;

Data sources

An extensive literature/internet search collected data on dentists' engagement in CPD, delivery methods, topic preferences and effectiveness. A survey, circulated widely to dental educational stakeholders gathered data on existing CPD programmes, requirements, providers, accreditation and opinions about CPD provision in European countries. A consensus process, including Special Interest Groups at ADEE conferences, sought agreement on core dental CPD topics.

Further information

Part-funded (75%) by the European Commission, this project was led by Cardiff University (Cowpe and Bullock) and undertaken in collaboration with partners from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University of Helsinki, Finland, Academic Centre for Dentistry, Amsterdam, Association for Dental Education in Europe and Rīga Stradiņš University.